Christmas in Russian painting

Andrey Rublev. Nativity of Christ

GLORIA

We hear baby talk like singing
Those angels who suddenly, for the whole earth,
Through this night and starry burning
They came to the desert shepherds.
We notice fraternal agreement
And the meek clarity of simple people,
Open to Heaven, angels and happiness,
What was born on the holy night for them.
We learn faith and patience
Magi who sought eternal depths,
And - again we hear singing in this world,
With which Heaven is full.
Oh, Lord, Great, Beginningless,
Creator of all stars, blades of grass and people,
You console this sad world
Your immeasurable closeness!
You see the sorrow of the earth: all our inability
To look for you, to love you, to accept you, to find you;
And you leave this singing in the middle of the world,
Like the fulfillment of every path.
Your star is burning - holy humanity,
And the world goes to its great love;
And if anyone saw her, it means eternity
Stopped over his soul.

Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy)1960

Joseph's Dream. Alexander Andreevich Ivanov. 1850s

While they were there, the time came for Her to give birth; and she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6-7). Until the beginning of the 5th century, Christmas was celebrated simultaneously as a feast of Epiphany. Therefore, the painting mixed the subjects of the birth itself and subsequent episodes, which, strictly speaking, relate more to the Epiphany - the worship of the Magi (kings), the worship of the shepherds, which do not always include an image of the birth of Christ directly.

Nativity of Christ. Gagarin Grigory Grigorievich

The Nativity of Jesus Christ was like this: after the betrothal of His Mother Mary to Joseph, before they were united, it turned out that She was pregnant with the Holy Spirit. Joseph, Her husband, being righteous and not wanting to make Her public, wanted to secretly let Her go. But when he thought this, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: Joseph, son of David! Do not be afraid to accept Mary your wife, for what is born in Her is from the Holy Spirit; She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. And all this happened, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying: Behold, a virgin is with child and will give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel, which means: God is with us. Rising from sleep, Joseph did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him, and received his wife, and did not know Her, when at last She gave birth to Her firstborn Son, and he called His name Jesus. (Gospel of Matthew. Ch. 1, 18-25)

Gagarin Grigory Grigorievich. Adoration of the Magi

Nativity of Christ (Adoration of the Shepherds).
Shebuev Vasily Kozmich. 1847
Image for the Annunciation Church of the Horse Guards Regiment in St. Petersburg

Nativity.
Repin Ilya Efimovich. 1890

The appearance of an angel announcing the birth of Christ to the shepherds. Sketch.
Ivanov Alexander Andreevich. 1850s.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The Doxology of the Shepherds. Ivanov Alexander Andreevich. 1850

The appearance of an angel to the shepherds.
Petrovsky Pyotr Stepanovich (1814-1842). 1839 Oil on canvas. 213x161.
Cherepovets Museum Association

For this painting, the young artist, a student of Karl Bryullov, received his first large gold medal Academy of Arts. The painting was in the museum Imperial Academy The art until it was closed, then was transferred to the Cherepovets Museum of Local Lore.

Nativity.
Vasnetsov Viktor Mikhailovich. 1885-1896
Murals of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kyiv

Nativity.
Vishnyakov Ivan Yakovlevich and others, 1755
From the Trinity-Petrovsky Cathedral.
, Saint Petersburg

Christmas.
Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich. 1790
Tver Regional Art Gallery

Nativity.
Borovikovsky Vladimir Lukich. Canvas, oil
Historical-architectural and Art Museum"New Jerusalem"

Nativity.
Sketch of the painting of the altar wall of the southern chapel in the choir of the Vladimir Cathedral.
Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich. 1890-1891
State Tretyakov Gallery

Magi. Sketch
Ryabushkin Andrey Petrovich. Paper, watercolor
Kostroma State United Art Museum

Lebedev Klavdiy Vasilievich (1852-1816)

Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Lebedev Klavdiy Vasilievich

Angelic praise at the moment of the birth of the Savior.
Lebedev Klavdiy Vasilievich

Adoration of the Magi.
Valerian Otmar. 1897
Original mosaic for the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

The appearance of an angel to the shepherds. Nativity. Candlemas.

Nativity.
Mosaic based on the original by I. F. Porfirov
Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Savior on Spilled Blood), St. Petersburg

The Nativity of Christ and other sacred scenes from the life of Jesus Christ and the Mother of God. I. Ya. Bilibin.
Sketch of a fresco for the southern wall of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Olshany

Christmas tree trade.
Genrikh Matveevich Manizer.
Omsk regional museum Fine Arts named after. M. A. Vrubel

City smelters.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich. 1867
State Russian Museum

Slavers.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich. 1868
State Russian Museum

Slavers.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich.
State Vladimir-Suzdal Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve

Slavers.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich. Canvas, oil.
Odessa Art Museum

Slavers.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich. 1872
Ulyanovsk Art Museum

Christoslav policemen.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich. 1872 Oil on canvas.
Perm State Art Gallery

Leonid Ivanovich Solomatkin (1837 - 1883) attended classes at the Imperial Academy of Arts and received a small silver medal for the paintings “Secretary’s Name Day” (1862) and “City Slavers” (1864), which V. V. Stasov welcomed as “a wonderful fresh offspring of Fedotov’s schools." The last plot was subsequently repeated several times; at least 18 author’s replicas are known, although the first version has not survived.

Waits. (Children of the old village).
F.V. Sychkov. 1935
Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts named after S. D. Erzya

In the cellar during Christmas week.
Solomatkin Leonid Ivanovich (1837-1883). 1878 Oil on canvas. 26.5x21.5.
Art Gallery Generations Fund of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of Ugra
Admission: 2003

In the film “In the Cellar during Christmas Week” Solomatkin portrays his favorite characters - wandering musicians. Is talent a burden or a gift, a blessing or a curse? Talent is destiny. Talent did not make the artist and his heroes happy, but they fulfill their purpose with dignity. The musicians depicted in the picture knew better days. The cello the old man plays is an instrument of a professional, allowing the musician to claim a certain privilege, testifying to a certain level of life left in the past. The old man is accompanied by a boy who plays along with him on the pipe. Apparently, for the sake of this little boy, carefully covered with a warm scarf, the old man has to wander with a heavy tool from zucchini to zucchini, earning his bread. There is a Christmas tree in the room, decorated with toys, and masks and masquerade costumes hang on a hanger, giving the whole event a phantasmagoric touch. Art Gallery of the Generations Fund of Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug of Ugra

Carols in Little Russia.
Trutovsky Konstantin Alexandrovich (1826-1893). No later than 1864

Magi (wise men).
Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. 1914 Watercolor, brown ink, ink, pen, brush on paper. 37x39.2 cm.

Adoration of the Magi.
Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. 1913 Wood, pencil, gouache. 45.7x34.9.
Private collection
Initially, the work was in the possession of the artist’s sister Evdokia Glebova.
On October 17, 1990 it was sold to an anonymous person at Sotheby's auction,
then on November 29, 2006, it was sold again at Christie’s for $1.5 million.
Christie's auction house

Adoration of the Magi.
Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov. 1913 Paper, gouache (tempera?), 35.5×45.5.
Private collection, Switzerland

God Himself came into the world of people in human form, into a world crippled by sin, to take on all the evil of the world and defeat it. He came not in a blaze of glory, but as a tiny helpless Baby, born in a poor place, unknown to anyone. famous family. In all ages Christian history this fact resonated with such force in the Christian heart that the Nativity of Christ became one of the favorite subjects for artists. Already in the very first early Christian monuments of art one can find images of the Nativity.

Let's try to accomplish it together little trip into the world of colors and lines, with the help of which the old masters conveyed to modern man the beauty and joy of the Nativity of Christ.

Art of the First Christians

For the first three centuries of Christian history (I-III centuries AD), a separate holiday of Christmas did not exist. It was connected with the feast of the Epiphany under the same name of Epiphany - the coming of God into the world of people. Only in the 4th century, when the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great allowed Christians to openly profess their faith and Christians came out of the catacombs, did the Christmas holiday emerge as an independent bright event of the annual liturgical and calendar circle. Gradually, a tradition of writing the plot of the Nativity began to develop. .

Nativity. Old Russian icon of the 15th century.

The first Christians depicted the Nativity of Christ very simply, as children usually draw it - a manger with the Baby, the Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph bending over them, next to an ox and a donkey. Sometimes (much less often) shepherds and wise men were depicted. Archaeologists find just such images of the Nativity on ancient Roman Christian sarcophagi and on bottles for lamp oil. With the appearance of the first icons (the earliest known icons date back to the 6th century AD), the iconography of the Nativity of Christ was formed, which will remain virtually unchanged until the 21st century.

Byzantine and Russian icons of the Nativity of Christ

Icon painting has its own special canons for depicting Sacred History. The icon painter does not set himself the task of drawing an illustration for the Christmas narrative of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. The Nativity of Christ is viewed from the point of view of eternity, where everything is different, not the same as on earth.

Therefore, for example, it is not surprising that the Nativity icon depicts several events that took place in different time- the appearance of a star, Christmas itself, the appearance of angels to the shepherds, the procession of the wise men. If all this were depicted by a secular artist, he would undoubtedly offer the audience a series of paintings on the theme of Christmas, where he would depict everything in sequence. This, by the way, happened during the Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries). And the icon painter combines everything in one icon, because in eternity there is no “when” and “then,” but only “today,” that is, “now and forever.”

In human history, in time, the Nativity of Christ took place only once. But for the Church, which every year again and again enters the space of Christmas, this event is not just historical fact, dividing time into “before the Nativity of Christ” and “after”. This is the event of the meeting of God and man, time and Eternity. This is not “once”, but “forever”.

In the space of the icon, the “joy of greatness” about the birth of the Savior of the world, which the angels announced to the shepherds, also looks completely different from joy in the ordinary, everyday sense. The icon seems to offer a different understanding of the holiday - not a rich table, not bright clothes, not songs and dances, but silence, peace and gratitude. Silence and peace of the figures of the Mother and the swaddled Baby, quiet sheep at the feet of the shepherds looking at the sky. This is the joy that is experienced inside, in the heart.

The classical Byzantine iconographic depiction of the Nativity of Christ includes three visual plans (tiers) - the top, “heaven,” the center, “the union of heaven and earth,” and the bottom, “earth.”

Old Russian icons almost always follow the Byzantine tradition. Only in the 17th century did icons appear, the composition of which is very reminiscent Western European painting. In the icons of this time, in addition to the actual plot of the Nativity, the plot of the flight to Egypt and the beating of infants by order of King Herod appear.

Giotto. Nativity.

Sky, star, mountains

What and, most importantly, why does the master place in each tier of the image?

At the top of the icon is usually depicted open sky and a shining star. The ray of the star touches the top of the mountain, inside of which there is a cave - a “den”. The star and the cave are a kind of concrete illustration of the Gospel story about Christmas, but the open sky and the top of the mountain are already filled with symbolic meaning. You can often come across the expression: “Christmas is heaven on earth.” It is quite possible that the icon painter means exactly this when depicting the open sky.

Since Christmas, heaven has become open to man; he can, if he wants, move towards God. Because Christ, having taken the form of a human baby, suffered and died on the Cross, and then resurrected, cured man of sin. And the path to heaven is open. Only a person must pass it himself, climbing up.

That's symbolic meaning mountains becomes clear - the mountains are depicted here not only as a reflection of the real mountainous landscape of the Holy Land, but also as an image of movement human soul upward, to God, through overcoming the obstacles of the former, sinful life. The angels on the sides of the mountain are also from heaven, mountain world where God lives. Moreover, the sky is meant not as an astronomical, natural-scientific concept, not as something that covers the earth, but as something that denotes limitlessness and purity.

Cave, donkey, ox, manger

Inside the cave, they usually depict the Virgin Mary lying on a bed, who is depicted larger than other participants in the event, and a tiny swaddled Christ, around whose head a cross-shaped halo shines (a halo with a cross inscribed in it is a mandatory attribute of the image of the Savior, indicating His suffering on the cross).

It is interesting that the Mother of God usually does not look at the Child, but looks at us. This often causes confusion. How is it that the Mother does not look at the Son? But this is done quite deliberately to show that the Baby does not belong to the Mother, He came into the world to save it.

An ox and a donkey (sometimes a horse and a cow) are usually depicted next to a wooden manger. This detail is not only a hint that Christmas took place in a stable, but also an illustration to the book of the prophet Isaiah, who predicted the birth of Christ from the Virgin many thousands of years before the event itself: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s manger...”(Isaiah 1:3). In addition, some researchers believe that the ox and the donkey are images of two worlds - Israeli and pagan, for the salvation of which the Lord came into the world.

It is also important to pay attention to the shape of the manger, which is similar to the shape of the tomb - Christ was born into the world to die for it and rise for it.

Domenico Ghirlandaio. Nativity.

Shepherds and Magi

Shepherds and wise men are often depicted on either side of the Virgin Mary; their figures are much smaller than the figure of the Virgin Mary. In the person of simple illiterate but believing shepherds and in the person of pagan wise men and women, the Lord appeared to the whole world. And now every person can find his own way to God - and not too educated, but kind and fair man, and a modern intellectual, whose heart is often infected with arrogance and arrogance.

Righteous Joseph

In the lower tier, the icons usually depict Joseph sitting in thought with a shepherd standing in front of him, and two women washing the newborn Baby.

The scene with the shepherd is usually explained this way: an evil spirit torments Joseph’s soul with doubts: how could the Birth happen? But many researchers agree that this is most likely the shepherd from the apocryphal tales of the Nativity, to whom Joseph turned in search of shelter and fire for the Baby. The most often used in iconography and painting is the apocryphal “Proto-Gospel of Jacob,” which tells about the childhood years of the Savior and the childhood of the Mother of God.

Washing the Child

The scene of the washing of the Child, about which neither Matthew nor Luke says anything, is also taken from the Proto-Gospel of James. On the one hand, this is a purely everyday detail associated with the birth of a child. In ancient times and the Middle Ages, it was customary to wash a newborn, as it is now. Hence the font and the jug of water.

But there is a second explanation for this. The Apocrypha introduces purely human elements into the story of the Nativity of God, everyday details. The Proto-Gospel of Jacob tells how Joseph left the Mother of God alone in a cave and went to look for a midwife who would help deliver the baby. A midwife named Salome doubted that the Virgin could give birth and wanted to see for herself. This is what happened next in the text:

“And as soon as Salome extended her finger, she screamed and said: “Woe to my unbelief, for I dared to tempt God. And now my hand is taken away, as if on fire...” And then the Angel of the Lord appeared before her and said to her, “Salome, Salome, the Lord has listened to you, raise your hand to the Baby and hold Him, and healing and joy will come for you.” And Salome came and took the Child, saying: “I will worship Him, for a great King of Israel has been born. And Salome was immediately healed..."

We can try to offer another simple interpretation of the scene of the washing of the Child. The font depicted on the icon is easily recognizable as the font in which infants are usually baptized in the Church, introducing them to life with God.

Western European artists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

The works of European artists of the Early (V-XI centuries) and Mature Middle Ages (XI-XIII centuries) in principle repeat the Byzantine iconographic tradition. Only a few details are added that cannot be found in Byzantine and Old Russian icons.

A characteristic feature of European Christian painting is the desire not so much to inspire a person to move the soul upward, towards God, but to “bring down” God from heaven to earth, to make Him accessible to man, to mix sacred history and everyday life. human history, dissolving one into the other.

Census in Bethlehem

One of the details of the event of the Nativity of Christ, which is not in the iconography, but is in the painting, is the image of the population census, with the story of which the Christmas chapter of the Gospel of Luke begins: “In those days a command came from Caesar Augustus to make a census of the whole earth...”(Luke 2:1).

Wonderful master Northern Renaissance Pieter Bruegel the Elder (16th century) dedicated this subject famous painting"Census in Bethlehem." But what appears to the viewer’s eyes is not the mountainous Holy Land, but the snow-capped Netherlands. The artist transfers gospel events into his contemporary world. There is always snow at Christmas in northern Europe, so righteous Joseph and the Virgin Mary wander through the snow.

Pieter Bruegel. Census in Bethlehem.

About what it is Holy family(as it was customary to say in Europe of the 14th-17th centuries), one can guess only by looking at the donkey on which the Virgin Mary sits, and the saw on the shoulder of Joseph the carpenter. Huge masses of people, among whom the modest Holy Family was lost, depict crowds of people who came to the census. But nothing else tells us that the great event of Christmas is about to take place. Dutch peasants are busy with their household chores, children frolic on the ice.

Only a Christmas wreath nailed above the door of the house and a roast pig hint at the holiday of Christmas. But these are again not gospel details, but reality Everyday life Netherlands Renaissance.

Cave, house, hotel

Often in European paintings on the theme of the Nativity of Christ, instead of a cave you can see a dilapidated, almost destroyed house.

On the one hand, such a house symbolized the fact that Christ was born in poverty and obscurity, and on the other hand, the old, dilapidated house symbolized the Old Testament, which, with the coming of Christ into the world, was replaced by the commandments of the New Testament.

Some researchers see in this image of a house an image of a hotel, such as was common in the East. It was a caravanserai, a hut with three walls, the fourth side of the house open to the street. Here, in the courtyard, separated by several steps from the house, cattle graze. Everything that happens in such a house is visible to the eyes of a stranger.

It is quite possible that it was in one of these hotels that the Holy Family was not allowed to spend the night. And, placing such a house-hotel on his canvas, European artists thereby emphasizing the pilgrimage of Christ in this world and His openness to everyone and everything.

Rogier van der Weyden. Adoration of the Magi.

Child Christ

On Byzantine and Old Russian icons, the Child Christ is often depicted without age, or vice versa, as a small adult, in order to emphasize the eternity of God and His maturity in relation to people.

IN European painting There are two common types of images of the Baby - either the fragile and thin body of a newborn with disproportionate parts of the body and a large head, as is the case with real newborn babies, or in the form of a well-fed six-month-old baby, or even a one-year-old child. Perhaps this concreteness, physicality in the depiction of Christ is also some tribute of Europeans to their desire to combine sacred and everyday, worldly history?

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn. Adoration of the Magi.

Around the head of the Infant God in most European paintings there is no cross-shaped halo, and in some there is not even a simple halo - a symbol of holiness.

The famous Dutch painter of the 17th century, Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, found an interesting move - he depicts the deep darkness of the Christmas night and, in contrast to the darkness, paints the bright glow of the Baby’s face. The light comes from Himself, and not from the halo painted above the head. So Rembrandt, with the help of bright details, conveys the idea that God Himself is the source of light, goodness, love, holiness.

Angels, shepherds

Often Western European artists They depicted angels over the baby not as spiritual beings, but as having the body of cheerful, happy musicians, only with wings on their backs.

The motif of playing the Christ Child on a flute or lutes originates in folk tradition Catholic medieval Europe play at Christmas in front of the image of the Child Christ on the pipe. Interestingly, the notes that the angels hold in their hands contain real pieces of music that can be performed. Some of them are even for multiple instruments and voices. In addition, the angels of European artists (for example, in the painting by Robert Campin) hold ribbons with the words of Christmas carols in their hands.

Robber Kampen. Nativity.

Shepherds are often depicted with pipes and bagpipes, which may be associated not only with their shepherd’s work, but also with the medieval custom of playing the flute for the Infant Christ.

Magi

Typically, European artists depicted the three wise men according to the number of three human ages (youth, maturity, old age) to emphasize that at any age a person needs God.

Christ the Child plays with the gifts, touches the clothes and hair of the Magi, and they stretch out their hands to Him. God rushes to people in response to their movement towards Him.

Already in the era of the Mature Middle Ages, pagan astrologer magicians turned into three kings who came from three countries of the East (Arabia, Persia and Ethiopia are most often mentioned among these countries). Each king has his own name - Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar. Each brought their own gift to the born Christ - gold (emphasizing the royal dignity of Christ), incense (which is used in worship) and myrrh (it is used to soak a dead body in the East). The gifts of the Magi symbolized the dual nature of Christ - Divine immortality and human mortality.

In Catholic Europe, there is still a holiday of the Three Kings, especially loved by German and French children. On this day (January 6), they receive gifts and wear golden paper crowns, depicting the Magi-kings.

Giotto. Adoration of the Magi.

During the Renaissance, the Magi had a magnificent retinue - camels and horses loaded with gifts, numerous servants, as, for example, in the painting “The Adoration of the Magi” by Giotto. Perhaps it was the Renaissance artists who brought into the consciousness of Europeans that understanding of the Christmas holiday, which is very close to modern man– abundance, even luxury of all possible manifestations of the material world as the main attribute of celebration. Isn’t this where the roots of the tradition of a rich festive meal, brilliant outfits, future lush decorated Christmas trees, balls and fireworks come from?

Artists increasingly enlarged this retinue; it often filled the entire field of the picture, so that Christ the Child and the Virgin Mary were barely noticeable. Gradually the same thing happened in everyday life. The reality of Christmas, its absolute meaning for a person of European Christian civilization, was obscured by the bustle of the metropolis. And for many, Christmas days are now just an excuse to attend a pre-holiday sale. Or just a long holiday in the middle of winter.

Renaissance artists, discovering new technical possibilities oil painting, mastered the image real world in every detail. Paintings on the theme of Christmas reveal not only painstakingly drawn folds of clothing in the then fashion of wealthy Italian or Dutch trading cities, but also portrait features of specific people - the artists themselves or their benefactors.

Gentile da Fabiano. Adoration of the Magi.

But maybe it's not just a matter of striving for realism. Still, the man of the Renaissance had not yet rejected Christ, and in general his life flowed in line with the Christian tradition, despite the fact that it was in XV-XVI centuries European rationalism is born. Perhaps this is how the Renaissance masters expressed the movement of their soul, which also wanted to worship Christ along with the Magi?

But only two or three hundred years will pass, and rationalism will turn into ordinary atheism, which will give rise to our post-Christian era, where faith and unbelief have become the personal matter of the individual. And more and more the festively dressed crowd obscures the newborn Baby...

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The State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin has implemented another significant project. In the halls of the Moscow museum there was an exhibition, dedicated to creativity the outstanding artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio. The exhibition takes place as part of the Year of Italy in Russia.
The exhibition includes 11 works by the master from the collections of Italy and the Vatican. The exhibition is small, but rare in its content. Among the presented works are such masterpieces of European painting as “Boy with a Basket of Fruit” from the Borghese Gallery, “Entombment”, which almost never leaves the walls of the Vatican Palace, “Supper at Emmaus” from Milan’s Brera Gallery, “Conversion of Saul” from the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo and other paintings.

The selection dedicated to Christmas includes the following paintings:

4. Giorgione. Adoration of the Magi.

5. Rogier van der Weyden. Adoration of the Magi.

6. Rembrandt, Harmens van Rijn. Flight to Egypt.

7. Hugo van der Goes. Christmas.

10. Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov. Nativity.

12. Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin. Christmas.

Giorgio Vasari(1511-1574) - Italian painter, architect and writer.

Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky(1757-1825) - Russian artist, master of portraiture.

Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, better known as Giorgione (1476/1477 – 1510)) - Italian artist, representative Venetian school painting; one of the greatest masters of the High Renaissance.

Rogier van der Weyden(1399/1400 – 1464) – van Eyck’s rival for the title of the most influential master of early Netherlandish painting.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn(16-6-1669) - Dutch artist, draftsman and engraver, Great master chiaroscuro, the largest representative of the golden age of Dutch painting.

Hugo van der Goes(c. 1420-25 – 1482) – Flemish artist. Albrecht Dürer considered him the largest representative of early Netherlandish painting, along with Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.

Sandro Botticelli(1445-1510) is the nickname of the Florentine artist Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, who brought the art of the Quattrocento to the threshold of the High Renaissance.

Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio(1573-1610), Italian artist, reformer of European painting of the 17th century, one of the greatest masters of the Baroque. One of the first to use the “chiaroscuro” style of painting - a sharp contrast of light and shadow.

Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov(1862-1942) - Russian and Soviet painter. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1942). Laureate Stalin Prize first degree (1941).

Shebuev, Vasily Kozmich- (* 2 (13) April 1777 in Kronstadt - † 16 (28) June 1855, St. Petersburg) - Russian painter, actual state councilor, academician, honored rector of painting and sculpture of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1832), one of leading masters of late classicism and academicism.

Eugene Henri-Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) – French painter, sculptor, ceramicist and graphic artist. Along with Cezanne and Van Gogh, he was the largest representative of post-impressionism.

Nativity in Rus' it is a great holiday, second in importance only to Easter. On the evening before Christmas - Christmas Eve - it is customary to abstain from eating: “You can’t do it until the first star.” According to tradition, on this day, with the appearance of the first star in the sky, which symbolizes Bethlehem, believers end their four-week fast. Then, closer to midnight, Orthodox Christians go to church to celebrate Christmas there.

From time immemorial, the holiday of the Nativity of Christ has been a source of inspiration for Russian artists, poets and writers.

Christmas stood at the window and painted frosty flowers on the glass, waiting for the floors in the house to be washed, the rugs to be laid, the lamps to be lit in front of the icons and to be let in... - Vasily Akimovich Nikiforov-Volgin"Silver Blizzard"

The most beautiful and fragrant word in the world, “Christmas,” flowed through my soul like a cheerful wind. It smelled of blizzards and prickly pine paws. - Vasily Akimovich Nikiforov-Volgin"Silver Blizzard"

Christmas romance
Is yours New Year on dark blue
A wave in the middle of the urban sea
Floating in inexplicable melancholy,
It's like life will start again
As if there will be light and glory,
Have a good day and plenty of bread,
It's like life is swinging to the right
swinging to the left.
- Joseph Alexandrovich Brodsky (1961)

What bliss that the snow shines,
That the cold got stronger, and it was drizzling in the morning,
That foil sparkles wildly and tenderly
On every corner and in the store window.
While serpentine, tinsel, gimmick
They rise above the boredom of other possessions,
The languor of the weeks before New Year's
to endure and endure - what a wondrous fate...
- Bella Akhmadulina, December 1974

Christmas

My calendar is half-scorched
blossomed in crimson numbers;
palms and opals on glass
the spell brought frost.
It poured out into a feathery pattern,
arched radiantly,
and tangerines and boron
the living room smells blue.
- Vladimir Nabokov, September 23, 1921, Berlin

Sergei Vasilievich Dosekin - Preparations for Christmas, 1896

It was a late and crimson evening,
The harbinger star has risen.
A new voice cried over the abyss -
The Virgin gave birth to a baby.

And there was a sign and a miracle:
In imperturbable silence
Judas appeared among the crowd
In a cold mask, on a horse.

Lords, full of care,
They sent the news to all ends,
And on the lips of Iscariot
The messengers saw the smile.
- Alexander Blok (1902)

Where the night casts anchor
In the remote constellations of the Zodiac,
Dry leaves of October
Deaf suckers of darkness,
Where are you flying to? For what
Have you fallen from the tree of life?
Bethlehem is foreign and strange to you,
And you didn’t see the manger.
There are no offspring for you - alas,
Sexless malice possesses you,
You will go away childless
In their drowned coffins.
And on the threshold of silence,
Among the unconsciousness of nature,
Not you, not you are doomed,
And the stars have eternal peoples.
- Osip Mandelstam (1920)

On this bright holiday

On this bright holiday -
Christmas holiday
We'll tell each other
Nice words.

The snow falls quietly:
It's winter outside,
A miracle will happen here
And will set hearts on fire.

Let your smiles
On this wonderful day
They will be our happiness
And a gift to everyone.

The sounds of life flow
Happiness and goodness,
Illuminating thoughts
With the light of Christmas.
- Khomyakov Alexey Stepanovich (1804-1860)

The emergence of images of a particular holiday is usually associated with the emergence of a stable tradition of celebration. In the early Church there was a celebration of Epiphany (Epiphany), dedicated to two events at once: the Incarnation and Baptism. This combined celebration arose no later than the 3rd century. In the 6th century, first in the Roman Church, and towards the end of the century in the East, the Nativity of Christ was distinguished from the celebration of Epiphany into an independent separate celebration. The first images of Christmas that have come down to us date back to the 6th century.

The sources of iconography were both the Holy Scripture (Matthew: 1-2; Luke: 2), and oral Tradition, recorded in such apocrypha as the Proto-Gospel of James (chap. 17-23) and the Gospel of pseudo-Matthew ch. 13-14).

The incarnation of the Savior was described in fine arts using two main plots: the “Christmas” itself and the “Adoration of the Magi.” Each of these subjects has its own iconography. The oldest images Nativity scenes are made using the relief technique on stone sarcophagi.

The layout of these scenes is usually very laconic: in the center is a manger with the Baby, next to it the Virgin Mary sits on a stone or in a wicker chair, and in the sky is the Star of Bethlehem. A donkey and an ox are depicted at the manger, the presence of which in the den is told by Tradition. The ox is understood by interpreters as a symbol of the lawful Jewish people, and the donkey as a symbol of the pagans who do not know the true God. Sometimes the composition includes an image of a shepherd who came to worship Christ.

When creating the iconography “Adoration of the Magi”, the artists used the already existing ancient art the plot of the worship of the defeated barbarians to the emperor. Where the surface had an extended horizontal format (on sarcophagi, pyxids), the scene unfolded as a procession of the Magi to the seated Virgin Mary holding the Child in her arms. Joseph the Betrothed could be depicted behind the Virgin Mary. The composition was sometimes supplemented with images of an ox, donkey, and camels.

If the surface allowed a centric, symmetrical composition (example: ampoules from Monza), then the frontal image of the Virgin and Child was placed in the center, and groups of wise men and shepherds were placed on either side of the throne. The arrival of the Magi chronologically occurred somewhat later than the worship of the shepherds, but in Christian art the combination of these events was allowed. The main thing for an artist has always been expression deep meaning what was happening, so some formal details might not be emphasized or even ignored. IN this option iconography's main theme is the Incarnation of the Divine and the worship of Him by the created world in the person of the wise Magi and simple shepherds.

On the mosaic of the arch of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the center of the composition, only the Child sits on a richly decorated throne, and the Mother of God, righteous Joseph, and the Magi are placed to the right and left of Him. When depicting the Magi, a certain historicism is always observed: they came from the East, that is, from somewhere in Persia, therefore they are dressed unusually for the ancient world - in trousers and characteristic Phrygian caps.

In the 6th century, the Virgin Mary began to be depicted not sitting near a manger, but reclining on a bed. This feature could have arisen as a result of polemics with the Monophysites, who argued that in Christ there is only one nature - Divine. The Church, rejecting this heretical error, defended the dogma of two natures in Christ: Divine and human. In the iconographic scheme, the refutation of Monophysitism found its allegorical expression. Christ is born in the flesh in a completely real way, His human nature is real, therefore the Mother of God rests after childbirth, which, although it did not violate virginity, was still childbirth, and not a ghostly, unreal phenomenon.

Already in early Christian monuments, an image of a “woman” appears - one of the midwives who came to the nativity scene after the birth of Christ. Works from the Middle Byzantine period depict both midwives washing the Child. This somewhat “everyday” scene - ablution - is not described either in the Gospel or in the apocrypha. Its inclusion in the composition once again emphasized the authenticity of the human nature of the Savior and the reality of Christmas - after giving birth, any child needs to be washed.

The first easel painting monument depicting the Nativity of Christ is a scene painted on the lid of a reliquary from the Sancta Sanctorum chapel. Stylistic features The paintings suggest that the reliquary comes from the eastern provinces of the empire, from Syria or Palestine. The artist depicted the nativity scene as a cave because he had a good idea of what a shelter for livestock would look like in Judea. Western artists They depicted what they saw in their lands - a canopy covered with straw or tiles.

Opposite the Mother of God, Joseph the Betrothed sits on a stone, supporting his bowed head with his hand, in a “pose of melancholy.” He looks thoughtful, as if detached; he contemplates the incomprehensibility of the mystery of the Incarnation. On the other hand, this pose emphasizes non-involvement righteous Joseph to this birth. On some Byzantine and Russian icons, the Betrothed is even depicted sitting with his back to the cave. This compositional solution makes it impossible to understand what is happening as a kind of sentimental family scene. Before us is precisely the Incarnation of God, the birth in the flesh of the Eternal God from Holy Virgin and any details associated with the theme of family are completely inappropriate. Developed in Western Europe The image of the “Holy Family” with its obvious family pathos was unacceptable for Eastern Christian art.

IN Byzantine art a small hill with a cave gradually turns into a massive mountain, against the backdrop of which all the episodes can be placed: the nativity scene itself with the Virgin and Child in a manger, over which an ox and a donkey are bending, the angel’s gospel to the shepherds, the angels praising God, the adoration of the Magi (or the Magi, galloping on horseback), the washing of Chad by the midwives, and the thoughtful Joseph. Some icons depict minor scenes: the Magi before Herod, the revelation to Joseph, the flight to Egypt, the massacre of the infants.

The mountain motif is a very successful compositional find. By depicting a mountain landscape, the artist automatically receives a high horizon and, accordingly, a lot of space to accommodate all the figures. There is even some free space left, filled with pastoral motifs: a shepherd playing the flute, a flock at a watering hole. The mountain allows us to avoid the undesirable image of the depth of space and perspective construction for the icon.

On the other hand, with the image of a huge mountain, all scenes are united in a single space, and even some single time. The chronological difference in time of the presented plots is leveled out. Everything happens as if in the present, today, “here and now,” as the kontakion of the holiday tells about this: “Today a virgin gives birth to the Most Essential, and the earth brings a den to the Unapproachable: angels with shepherds praise, and wolves with a star travel: for our sake was born From a young age, Eternal God.”